The present invention relates to a technique of automatically collecting traffic data and performance monitor data on a transmission path in a component device such as a user network interface and a network node interface of an ATM switching equipment.
In an ATM switching equipment for switching and transferring inter-user and inter-network information in the form of cells, each of intra switching equipment component device such as a user network interface (UNI) device and a network node interface (NNI) device, measures traffic data about the number of transmission cells and the number of disposal cells etc on the unit of connection set in the above device or on the unit of each device, and measures performance monitor data about a bit error rate etc on the unit of each device. It is generally requested that these pieces of measured data be tabulated with a predetermined period, and that a result thereof be outputted and displayed in response to a request from a maintenance man.
Those pieces of traffic data and the performance monitor data have hitherto been temporarily collected within each component device, and fetched, edit-processed, outputted and displayed by software in a central controller with the predetermined period or every time the maintenance man makes the request.
A numerical quantity of the respective component devices such as the user network interfaces and the network node interfaces which are accommodated in the single switching equipment, ranges from several tens to several hundreds of units. It is a comparatively large burden on the software of the central processing unit to fetch the data from all the devices within the 15 period that are used in a normal operation, and there must be a possibility of causing a decline especially in terms of a throughput of a call process executed by the same software. Further, alternatively there might arise a problem in which the data can not fetched out from all the devices within the 15 period.
To obviate this problem, there is a method of separately providing a device for exclusively executing processes of collecting and editing the traffic data and the performance monitor data (which device is hereinafter simply called a data editing terminal) separately from the central controller. In order to input the traffic data and the performance monitor data to the data editing terminal from each component device, however, it is required that a data transferring unit similar to the method of inputting the data to the conventional central controller be newly provided between each component device and the data editing terminal.
According to the present invention, a data editing terminal different from a central controller is used. Each component device generates an OAM cell having traffic data and performance monitor data as internal information without providing a new device as the one for inputting the data to the data editing terminal. The traffic data and the performance monitor data of all the devices are automatically simultaneously inputted at a high speed to the data editing terminal by routing the OAM cell to the data editing terminal connected to an ATM switch of the same switching equipment. The data required can be displayed at any time periodically or in response to a request from a maintenance man in the data editing terminal.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an ATM switching equipment has a component device for transmitting and switching an ATM cell of said ATM switching equipment. The ATM switching equipment comprises a performance monitor data counting unit of counting performance monitor data about a connection of a transmission path, a traffic data counting unit for counting traffic data about the connection of the transmission path, and a data editing unit for editing the data from the performance monitor data counting unit and from the traffic data counting unit.
The component device herein implies, e.g., a user network interface (UNI) so constructed as to be capable of counting by itself the performance monitor data and the traffic data.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the ATM switching equipment according to the first aspect of the invention further comprises a cell editing unit for storing the data edited by the data editing unit in a fixed cell format.
The data tabulated by the component device such as the user network interface etc are thereby transmitted within the ATM switch in accordance with a specified cell format (e.g., an OAM cell) and circulated as edited data.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the ATM switching equipment according to the first or second aspect of the invention, further comprises a timer unit, and the data editing unit collects the data at an interval of a fixed time.
The tabulated data are thereby periodically sent to the outside in the cell format.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, a data editing system of an ATM switching equipment, in addition to the ATM switching equipment according to the second aspect of the invention, comprises a data editing terminal connected via a user network interface to the ATM switching equipment. The data editing terminal reads an information field of an OAM cell received from the ATM switching equipment, edits the information field and displays an edited result on a display terminal provided in the system periodically or in response to a request from an operator of the system.
The data collected by the component device such as the user network interface etc are thereby easily edited and displayed on the data editing terminal via a normal transmission path.